What is Wisconsin’s goal with the newly vacant Football GM role?

Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell speaks to reporters after the first spring practice Thursday, March 19, 2026 at the McClain Center in Madison. | Lori Nickel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Wisconsin Badgers saw their administration shaken up a bit last week, as Athletic Director Chris McIntosh abruptly left for a role at the Big Ten. As a result, Marcus Sedberry was named the interim Athletic Director.

Sedberry had previously held a few roles at Wisconsin, serving as Deputy Athletic Director, Chief Operating Officer, and Wisconsin Athletics General Manager, where he also worked as the Football General Manager.

Now, with his promotion, the Badgers have to find a new general manager for their football program, which head coach Luke Fickell acknowledged was a goal.

“I think that at least getting through spring football is the focus,” Fickell said about finding the team’s next general manager. “And not that you don’t always have something in the back of your head about how you’re going to push forward, and every day is a recruiting day, and in particular, Saturdays are recruiting days.

“But we need to wrap up spring ball here next week and then really start taking a good dive into that because we— good fortune is we have this period of time where, you know, there isn’t another portal, there isn’t a whole lot of things that need to be addressed right away. But recruiting never ends. And so that’s a big piece of things that we gotta be ready to move forward. We gotta be ready to make some decisions here at the end of spring ball.”

In a letter to fans last week, Sedberry said that he’d work with Fickell to find the team’s next general manager, and the goal is certainly to have that in place by the time official visits are starting at the end of May.